The East Coast Low that impacted the east coast states of New South Wales and Queensland resulted in a total industry event loss of AU$958 million, according to independent catastrophe insurance data provider PERILS.
The industry loss footprint by PERILS, which is based on detailed loss data gathered from the majority of the Australian insurance market, covers the East Coast Low that occurred from February 05-13. It marks the first time that detailed property and motor loss data by postcode has been provided for an East Coast Low event in the country.
According to PERILS’ data, damage along the coastal areas of New South Wales resulted in 88% of the industry loss, while the damage in South East Queensland resulted in 11% of the industry loss. Property saw the majority of the losses, with 93% attributable to this line of business. Meanwhile, motor losses represented around 7% of the total losses.
Darryl Pidcock, the head of PERILS Asia-Pacific, said: “The event was part of a very active Australian summer season which included the Australian bushfire and hailstorm events. The PERILS Database for Australia now contains detailed industry loss data for flood, tropical and extratropical cyclones, hail, and bushfire events.”
PERILS will provide an updated estimate of insured losses from the February 2020 Australian East Coast Low in February, 2021.
